Blogs from Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, Europe - page 4

Friday 4 September We headed off this morning towards Blarney, gearing up to kiss the stone. The castle is really lovely and relaxing. A peaceful stop, but then again, we had just beaten bus loads of tourists. The climb up the tower is through a quite narrow spiral staircase. There were tiney rooms coming off the staircase. Certainly a modest castle! When we reached the top, there was only a very small line up. The story is that a prince saved a drowning witch from a river and she returned the favour by telling him there was a magic rock at his castle. One that would give a person the eloquence of speech. Hoping it works. A man helps you to lie on your back, and you reach over your head to hold onto two steel ... read more

After the successful (besides the weather) trip to Kilkenny, we decided to spend the next Saturday in Waterford. Just like in Kilkenny, when we got off the bus in Waterford, we had no idea where to go. It didn’t take long to find the tourist office and get maps and advice for where to go in town. After leaving the tourist office, we took our time making our way across town to see Reginald’s Tower, a tower built in the 11th or 12th century to defend Waterford, one of the oldest cities in Ireland. After we got pictures of the building, we made our way to the well-known Waterford Crystal factory. It was a long walk there, but it was worth it. Although they weren’t doing tours of the factory that day, we did look around ... read more

Laurie was in charge of travel arrangements. Axel was in charge of lodging, food and proposing a touring itinerary. You’d think we’ve done this before… The Emerald Isle came into view in the early dawn of the 16th in that last 20 minutes of grogginess before touchdown. The flight was completely uneventful and the landing smooth as silk in the still morning air. While we had prepared ourselves mentally for the fact that the weather this time of year would be less than ideal we have thus far been pleasantly surprised by the lack of precipitation and the amount of sunshine…famous last words. The plan is to spend two nights in five separate locations around the southern rim of the island, western shore and Dublin. On this our first day, the basic intention was to get ... read more

Geo: 52.3242, -7.04696 ... read more

Being that today was Chet's first day driving on the "wrong" side of the road, he did so well! I will let him recollect today's journey when he gets online tomorrow. He is fast asleep, because today was such a big day. I wanted to post pics from the trip Grandma took us on, on Sunday after church. We drove up the Rhein and saw various castles and got to see one of the most famous sights, the Lorely (a large cliff named after a legend). Legend was, that men steering ships would look away from their course, to see her singing, and would be so distracted that they would crash their boats in the rocks or get stuck in whirlpools. We even got to have cheesecake with Grandma, at a CASTLE-overlooking the Rhein!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tired, ... read more